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Fall Festival Contest

Greetings, Citizens of the Empire!

With the fall breeze making its rounds across our continents, the many inhabitants of the Realm of the Prime make preparations for the changing of the seasons. Youngsters spend their nights running around the towns dressed as the fearful Valkor and Daknor, hatchlings give the citizens of Dralk and Chiconis their best Reklar and Burnbones impression. And at night, even the bravest adventurers draw a pale face as the elders tells tales of horrors long past or hidden.

As the harvest season draws closer, we at the B.O.O realise that within our closely knit society there are those who excel at weaving tales, painting masks, and designing murals. Because of this, we are bringing back our well-loved Fall Festival Contest, and opening up submission boxes for any citizen who is willing to share their craft.

Now, onto the paperwork!

For this year, we have opened contests within the following categories:

Spinner of Tales: Retell the most terrifying, bone-chilling and terrifying tale of Istarian folklore you can recall!

Painter of Masks: Fancy yourself an artist of the brush? Show us your most intricate and detailed mask designs and who knows, perhaps your design will show up in Jacques’ inventory of masks!

Etcher of Murals/Weaver of Banners: Are you more of the home decorator type? Perhaps you’ve recently added some home-brew decorations to your plot of land or deep underground lair. Show us what you got and we might include your design in this year’s selection of patterns!

Of course, with any kind of contest there’s a set of guidelines, or rules if you prefer to call them that;

Your entry must be in Chairman Beldin’s mailbox ( chairman.beldin@istaria.com) by midnight PDT, on the 16th of September. Winners will be announced on the 30th of September.

Please include a .psd, .sai, or any filetype of choice that retains the layers in case edits are required after submission. This is not a requirement but it is appreciated.

The theme for the contest is “Things that go bump in the Blight”; show us designs that you think would not only scare the living daylights out of those among the gifted, but also those restless in the Blight!*

The amount of winners per category depends on the amount of entries, though there may be room for runner-ups, but at bare minimum there will be:

2 Winning Tales

3 Winning Masks

1 Winning Mural and 1 Winning Banner

Winners have the opportunity of receiving a title of they so wish, and should include a character name with their entries to receive the title after the contest entries go live.

You can enter for multiple categories & you can enter for any category as many times as you want.

* Entries that follow the theme of the contests have a higher chance of winning. Though thinking outside of the box is not frowned upon either.

Storyteling Guidelines

Your story must be between 400 and 800 words long. These aren’t hard limits but please keep them in mind while you’re spinning your horrifying tale.

The tale must take place in Istaria and refer only to things one could think of experiencing in there. (so no modern world references)

Your tale must not introduce new lore or history - keep it within the world we all know and love.

If you wish for your tale to be told by a specific (new or old) NPC, please do include it in the details so we can take it into consideration.

Once you have finished your tale, send it to Chairman Beldin’s maibox and hope for the best!

Mask Guidelines
Step 1. First, download the template files found here, this contains both templates for Dragon and Biped masks.

Step 2. Open the file in your favourite art program.

Step 3. Get creative! Remember to follow the template though you can take some liberties in how you design it. Please keep in mind that the biped masks are mirrored whereas the dragon masks are not.

Step 4. Save your mask in any file format, though preferably .png, .tga, or .bmp. Please don’t use jpg - it drops image quality and will affect the conversion to Istaria’s AGH format.

Step 5. Email your amazing design to Chairman Beldin and cross your fingers for luck! Also include the name of the character you wish to have any potential rewards distributed to if your entry makes it to the winning few!

Remember, entries that follow the theme of the contest have a higher chance of winning!

Mural/Banner Guidelines
Step 1. As with the masks, you must first download the template files that you can locate here, in here you’ll find templates for both Murals and Banners.

Step 2. Open the template of choice in your favourite art program.

Step 3. Put your brush on the canvas and get creative. Murals, unlike the masks, require you to stay within the template’s boundaries, though the banners allow for a little more freedom.

Step 4. Save your mask in any file format, though preferably .png, .tga, or .bmp. Please don’t use jpg - it drops image quality and will affect the conversion to Istaria’s AGH format.

Step 5. Email your fantastic design to Chairman Beldin and cross your fingers for luck! Also include the name of the character you wish to have any potential rewards distributed to if your entry makes it to the winning few!

Remember, entries that follow the theme of the contest have a higher chance of winning!
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